Reynolds Allen Wintersmith Jr. was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted in Illinois federal court in 1994 of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribute cocaine and cocaine base and possession with intent to distribute crack. He was 19 at the time of his arrest and 17 at the time he got involved running drugs for the Gangster Disciples gang. He is 39 today and has spent the past 19 years in prison.

A spokeswoman for Patrick confirmed that the 57-year-old Massachusetts governor and Wintersmith are cousins but denied any invovement in the drive to get the federal prisoner a rare commutation — one of only nine Obama has granted as president.

"The Governor has no recollection of meeting Mr. Wintersmith (they are quite far apart in age), and believes that if they did meet, it would have been when Mr. Wintersmith was a small boy. The Governor was not involved in any application for a commutation of Mr. Wintersmith’s sentence, and only learned of the commutation through today’s media reports," said the Patrick aide, who asked not to be named.

Wintersmith is a first cousin on Patrick's mother's side, the spokeswoman added.

Patrick's 2011 book, "A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life," discusses his upbringing on the South Side of Chicago, an uncle's addiction to heroin and the involvement of others in the neighborhood with drugs and gangs.

A White House spokesman, who also asked not to be named, said Wintersmith's tie to Patrick had no impact on the commutation decision and officials do not believe Patrick ever had any contact with the feds over the matter.

Wintersmith's case went to the Supreme Court in 1996, on a challenge to how his sentence and those of his co-defendants were arrived at based on distribution of both powdered and crack cocaine. The justices upheld the sentences without any noted dissent two years later in an opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer.

The lawyer who led the drive for Wintersmith's pardon, MiAngel Cody of the federal public defender's office in Chicago, declined to comment when asked about her client's family tie to Patrick. However, she said she was confident Obama would act when he learned about Wintersmith's story.

"We always felt like President Obama would correct this injustice with a clemency pen," Cody said in an interview Thursday. "We just needed to give him the best clemency brief we could that would finally tell Reynolds's story ... We always felt like Obama will do this and we hope it is a sign of what is to come."

Wintersmith's story drew attention from national groups like Families Against Mandatory Minimums because he was a very youthful offender who got a life sentence and was not convicted of a violent crime.

"His crime began and ended when he was a teenager," said Cody. "It was his first offense. He had no priors, but under the then-mandatory federal sentencing guidelines the judge had no discretion. He could only impose a life sentence."

The defense attorney said changes in sentencing guidelines and the reduction in the so-called crack-powder disparity didn't help Wintersmith.

"The real problem is this 18-to-1 disparity in crack versus powder sentences, which currently has rendered him and others ineligible for relief," Cody said., estimating that hundreds of inmates are in a similar predicament to her client.

"Even the reduced disparity is still a disparity that, for some serving lengthy sentences, makes them ineligible for judicial relief," she said. "This certainly illustrates what we hope is a crack in the dam."

Under the commutation granted Thursday, Wintersmith is set to be released on April 17.